A Democratic-backed measure to prevent the Trump administration from allowing health care insurance companies to offer short-term coverage plans failed in the Senate on Oct. 10. But Democrats hope they have embarrassed Republicans politically on the issue.
Charles Schumer
Exactly why they feel that way is a bit unclear. The administration is allowing insurers to offer plans to people who don’t feel they need comprehensive coverage and want to save money while still being insured in case of catastrophe. Democrats hope to frame this expansion of options to the American people as “junk” insurance that harms those with pre-existing conditions.
Politics of Infirmity
Democrats believe allowing healthier Americans to pay less into the socialist Obamacare mandate will mean higher premiums for those who require greater coverage. They hope to use this talking point to paint Republicans as uncaring ogres as the midterm elections approach.
“In a few short weeks the American people will head to the polls where they can vote for another two years of Republican attempts to gut our health-care system, or they can vote for Democratic candidates who will safeguard the protections now in place and work to make health care more affordable,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY).
Democrats are especially emphasizing the issue in the close Senate race in Nevada, where GOP Sen. Dean Heller is battling Rep. Jacky Rosen.
An NBC/Marist poll released on Oct. 9 shows Heller edging Rosen among likely voters sampled by 46% to 44%. Rosen hammered Heller on Twitter over his vote against the Democratic Senate measure:
#SenatorSpineless Dean Heller just cast a deciding vote to continue Trump's expansion of junk health insurance plans that don’t require coverage for pre-existing conditions or essential health benefits – and would spike costs for many Nevadans. #NVSen
— Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) October 10, 2018
“This is a narrative that just doesn’t hold together,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said, articulating the Republican response to the attempted demonization. “People want to buy the Cadillac plan under Obamacare, they can do that. But a lot of people can’t afford it, so giving them a choice to buy something they can afford and want strikes me as a good thing.”
What this really amounts to is Democrats showing once again that they have no new ideas to offer voters. So instead they resist. As President Trump said in Iowa on Oct. 9, “That’s all they’re good at – resisting. Their whole campaign is resist. Ours is to create.”
Tactical Inanity
Instead of being proactive – or, heaven forbid, even innovative – in searching for solutions to the problems that plague this country, the Democratic default button is always set to “GOP Oppressor.” When you define yourself only by your opposition you are dancing to another’s tune instead of setting a direction yourself. Democrats absolutely cannot see this.
Jim Treacher at PJ Media aptly summed up this empty party in a recent article. “The Democrats have no ideas, no principles, just tactics,” he wrote about the ugly campaign against new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. These are the terrible fruits of embracing identity politics and the use of division as a campaign tool. This is the end stage of the Saul Alinsky attack germ that Democrats absorbed by promoting and accepting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as leading faces of their party.
This Democratic maneuver to position increased healthcare options for Americans as killing sick people is just one more tactic for a party that is all scheme and no substance. Leftists in the Democratic Party and among their media comrades see their nonstop tactical assaults as a way of remaining on the offensive but, in fact, they make them appear irrational and desperate to more thoughtful people.
Last week, a sexual abuser was being put on the Supreme Court. This week, sick people are being murdered on Capitol Hill. With three more weeks to go before the midterms, one can only wonder what unhinged accusations the Democrats still have left in their toxic bag of “resistance.”
